Polestar Head of Motorsport Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin says his team have “more to give” in the second round of the World Touring Car Championship than they were able to show in the season opener.
Whilst Polestar driver Thed Björk made it into Q2 and put his car in sixth in qualifying, the Swedes were later dealt a blow when he was excluded from the session.
Solid points performances in both of the first two races, albeit also coupled with a retirement for both Fredrik Ekblom in the opening race and Thed Björk in the main race, then followed on Sunday.
“We have of course a lot of work ahead of us in a tight schedule,” said Murdzevski Schedvin. “The season start was promising but was founded on far from ideal conditions when two of the three test sessions rained away and the team got compromised data to base the settings of the car.
“We have more to give than we were able to show and are therefore looking forward to the weekend.”
Björk emerged as the Swedish manufacturer’s leading driver from the weekend, thanks to a seventh place finish in the opening race, and he is optimistic of a further step forward this weekend.
“We learned so much on such short time in France, something we bring with us to Slovakia where I hope we can take a big step forward,” said Björk. “Coming to Slovakia will be awesome and we have potential to improve on all areas.
“We have never been on this track before, but I have prepared myself by driving a simulator together with my team mate Fredrik.”
Ekblom added that the team hope to be able to focus more on the details in this weekend’s races, provided the conditions do not scupper their plans beforehand.
“We got a lot of positive things with us from Paul Ricard,” said Ekblom. “Coming to Slovakia will be a completely different thing with one race weekend behind us, enabling us to focus more on the details, and I am longing to get back out on track.”